I may have heard this sentence more times than anybody in the history of the LDS Faith.
“Relax man, It’s only church basketball!”
Not that I am a hot head, quite the opposite. I am very level headed even after a couple uncalled fouls or an intenional cheapshot.
I get the relax comment because I have no offense and only one speed on defense, full speed. It’s not intenional. I just can’t turn it down. It doesn’t matter what the score is, or the fact that I have never even played a basketball game that mattered to anyone but myself, when I play defense, I only run a full court press, usually by myself. The worst part is, the more it bothers my opponent, the more I enjoy it.
I think it all stems from my personal belief that when you have short comings in anything, the quickest fix is to turn up the intensity. The second quickest fix is to put on your mean face. No doubt these are personal beliefs fueled by a lifetime of wrestling.
As a wrestler, I never felt bad about giving up one point for unnecessary roughness as long as I had at least a two point lead. In the video below I get a particular bargain on a unnecessary roughness call, leading 10-2 with less than a minute to wrestle and only being punished one point for a hum-dinger. I'll take that deal every time.
Recently I decided I needed to start doing what I could to pass the mean faces and intensity on to my offspring. Not that I would let any of my girls wrestle, but heck, life is just more fun if you have a good mean face in your arsenal. So I decided to get Jilli Bean started by working on her mean face and it seems to come pretty natural for her. Judge for yourself.
8 comments:
I really enjoyed the noise he made as he went crashing into that pile. That was a sweet video!
That was a really good wrestling video, Beetle and I replayed it like five times. Jillian's mean face is pretty awesome too.
That was SAWEET UnneCesSary RoughNeSs!! Boom baby... you dont mess with Big Red. Also, I have watched that Jillian Vid like a 100 times. Rome showed it to me on YouTube. Danny and I laughed SO hard. I love her little smile after she receives your praise for her angry face. Freeeekin Awesome:)
Ps. Jilly's Mean face kinda looks like Pop Eye. Just sayin...
First of all, I have played basketball with you and unless you have personally (and physically) experienced the Rangi Smart Blanket Defense,you can't really understand how frustrating it is to try to play the game with you defending. It's beyond annoying. Second, the video from the NCAA tourney just confirms why you are my hero. I'm thinking about starting a NW Chapter of the Rangi Smart Fan Club, with me as President, of course. Finally, Jillian's smile when she realized how happy you were that she did her mean face was very funny, and perhaps a little disturbing.
Rangi, I'm sure that wasn't a cheap shot. It was totally an accident, or the guy deserved it or something. (Remember I am your mom who raised you to be a nice boy.) I love Jillian's mean face. We have viewed it several times on You tube. It is pretty cute how happy she is that you love her mean face.
Here was a great article in the new yorker a couple months ago about underdogs and the full court press. That's how I play too. I wonder if you could look up the article online?
oh my gosh SOO CUTE. I appreciate this post because I think I have the same mode of operation when it comes to anything in which I lack skill...which is everything.
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